Saskatchewan’s auditor says the province has no plans to inspect 37,000 oil and gas wells before 2026.

In a report released on Wednesday, the province’s auditor Tara Clemett said after examining the Ministry of Energy and Resources’ process for inspecting wells and facilities for compliance with requirements, Saskatchewan had about 54,000 active wells.

There was also about 8,000 active facilities.

According to the report, approximately 30 ministry staff perform on-site inspections, 25 per cent of more than 21,000 inspections in 2023 found operators not complying with requirements.

“One operator owed about $2 million to the ministry but continued to get new well licenses,” the report said.

Recommendations from the report said the Ministry of Energy and Resources “needs to” implement what it called a risk-informed inspection plan that extends past 2026, because the current plan will leave about 37,000 wells around the province uninspected since before 2021.

Other recommendations were to:

•  Develop staff guidance to support consistent inspections and enforcement actions. The report found Ministry staff gave operators different lengths of time to address similar non[1]compliance issues (e.g., fix berms around well sites)
•  Comply with regulations by sufficiently assessing whether operators owe money to the Government before approving new well or facility licences and justify approving these licences when operators do owe money.
•  Review oil and gas waste disposal facilities’ annual reports timely to determine whether environmental risks exist and need to be addressed.
•  Enhance reports to senior management by including analysis of regulatory activities (e.g., trends of operator non-compliance found).

Clemett also said the Ministry of Environment should be documenting key judgements in regard to environmental risks when looking into licence applications for both oil and gas wells and facilities.